Qumrān literature (Dead Sea Scrolls)

Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls

New literary documents from the intertestamental period were found in the caves of Qumrān in the vicinity of the Dead Sea in the 1940s, but only a portion of them has yet been published. All the Dead Sea Scrolls were written before the destruction of the Second Temple; with the exception of small Greek fragments, they are all in Hebrew and Aramaic. The scrolls formed the library of an ancient Jewish sect, which probably came into existence at the end of the 2nd century bce and was founded by a religious genius, called in the scrolls the Teacher of Righteousness. Scholars have tried to identify the sect with all possible groups of ancient Judaism, including the Zealots and early Christians, but it is now most often identified with the Essenes; all that the sectarian scrolls contain fits previous information about the Essenes, and the Dead Sea Scrolls help scholars to interpret the descriptions about the Essenes in ancient sources.

The Shrine of the Book, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, at the Israel Museum in west Jerusalem.

Findings and conclusions

Apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings

The importance of the discovery is very great; the scrolls of books of the Old Testament caused a new evaluation of the history of the text of the Hebrew Bible; fragments of the Apocrypha (Sirach and Tobit) and of already known and unknown Pseudepigrapha enlarge knowledge about Jewish literature of the intertestamental period, and the properly sectarian scrolls are important witnesses about an ancient sect that influenced, in some points, the origins of Christianity.

Among the previously unknown Pseudepigrapha were large parts of an Aramaic scroll, the Genesis Apocryphon, which retells stories from Genesis in the manner of a number of apocryphal books. The chapters that are preserved are concerned with Lamech, his grandfather Enoch, Noah, and Abraham, and the narrators in the scroll are the respective biblical heroes. There is a close affinity between this scroll and the Book of Jubilees and Book of Enoch, fragments of these books having been also found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Another pseudepigraphon that resembles the Dead Sea sect in spirit is the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs; fragments of two of its sources, namely, the Aramaic “Testament of Levi” and a Hebrew “Testament of Naphtali,” are extant in the Qumrān library. All these books were composed in an apocalyptic movement in Judaism, in the midst of which the Dead Sea sect originated. It is sometimes difficult to ascertain if a work was written within the sect itself or if it represents the broader movement. The largest scroll, the Temple Scroll, is as yet unpublished. It describes—by the mouth of God himself and in Hebrew—not the Temple of the last days but the Temple as it should have been built. There are strong ties between the Temple Scroll and the Book of Jubilees and the prescriptions in it fit the conceptions of the sect; the work was composed by the sectarians themselves.

Pesharim

An important source of knowledge about the history of the Dead Sea sect is the pesharim (“commentaries”; singular pesher). The sectarian authors commented on the books of Old Testament prophets and the book of Psalms and in the commentaries explained the biblical text as speaking about the history of the sect and of events that happened in the time of its existence. According to the manner of apocalyptic literature in the pesharim, persons and groups are not named with their proper names but are described by symbolic titles—e.g., the Teacher of Righteousness for the founder of the sect. The most important sectarian commentaries are the pesharim on Habakkuk and on Nahum.

The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness

One of the most interesting Dead Sea Scrolls is The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, a description of the eschatological war between the Sons of Light—i.e., the sect—and the rest of mankind, first with the other Jews and then with the Gentiles. At the end the Sons of Light will conquer the whole world, and in this war they will be helped by heavenly hosts; the Sons of Darkness, aided by the devil Belial and his demonic army, and, finally, all wicked ones will be destroyed. The work contains prayers and speeches that will be uttered in the eschatological war as well as military and other ordinances. Thus, the book also could be called the Manual of Discipline for the last war.

Other books of ordinances of the sect have been preserved, containing prescriptions and other material. Three such compositions are written on one scroll: the Manual of Discipline, the Rule of the Congregation, and the manual of Benedictions. The Manual of Discipline is the rule (or statement of regulations) of the Essene community; the most important part of this work is a treatise about the special theology of the sect. The Rule of the Congregation contains prescriptions for the eschatological future when the sect is expected to be the elite of the nation. The manual of Benedictions, preserved only in a fragmentary state, contains benedictions that are to be said in the eschatological future.

Another sectarian book of ordinances is the Damascus Document (the Zadokite Fragments). The work was already known from two medieval copies before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but fragments of it also were found in Qumrān, and the connection between this work and the Dead Sea sect is evident. The Damascus Document was written in a community in Damascus, which was not as rigidly organized as the Essenes. The work contains the rules of this community and reminiscences of the sect’s history. Some scholars think that “Damascus” is only a symbolical name for Qumrān.

Hodayot

One of the most important Essene works is the Hodayot (“Praises”)—a modern Hebrew name for the Thanksgiving Psalms. This scroll contains sectarian hymns of praise to God. In its view of the fleshly nature of man, who can be justified only by God’s undeserved grace, it resembles St. Paul’s approach to the same problem. Some scholars think that the work, or a part of it, was written by the Teacher of Righteousness.